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ANTIGONE
(SCENE:—The same as in the Oedipus the King, an open space before
the royal palace, once that of Oedipus, at Thebes. The backscene represents
the front of the palace, with three doors, of which the central and
largest is the principal entrance into the house. The time is at daybreak
on the morning after the fall of the two brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices,
and the flight of the defeated Argives. ANTIGONE calls ISMENE forth from
the palace, in order to speak to her alone.)
ANTIGONE
ISMENE, sister, mine own dear sister, knowest thou what ill there is, of
all bequeathed by Oedipus, that Zeus fulfils not for us twain while we live?
Nothing painful is there, nothing fraught with ruin, no shame, no dishonour,
that I have not seen in thy woes and mine.
And now what new edict is this of which they tell, that our Captain
hath just published to all Thebes? Knowest thou aught? Hast thou
heard? Or is it hidden from thee that our friends are threatened with the
doom of our foes?
ISMENE
No word of friends, Antigone, gladsome or painful, hath come to me,
since we two sisters were bereft of brothers twain, killed in one day by a
twofold blow; and since in this last night the Argive host hath fled, I
know no more, whether my fortune be brighter, or more grievous.
ANTIGONE
I knew it well, and therefore sought to bring thee beyond the gates of
the court, that thou mightest hear alone.
ISMENE
What is it? Tis plain that thou art brooding on some dark tidings.
ANTIGONE
What, hath not Creon destined our brothers, the one to honoured burial,
the other to unburied shame? Eteocles, they say, with due observance of
right and custom, he hath laid in the earth, for his honour among the
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